1. Field of the Invention
This invention is related generally to a protective athletic glove and more particularly a lacrosse glove with improved flexibility, protection, and comfort.
2. Description of the Related Art
Gloves used in lacrosse are necessarily designed to hold a stick with a strong grip in order to receive and throw a ball with a handle of the stick whose wedge is provided with a net portion. Thus, stick handling is essential for ball control in lacrosse. At the same instant, players use the stick to knock the ball out of the net and often hit the parson carrying the ball in the hands and wrists. Therefore, the gloves should not restrict the hand and wrist movement and allow the hand to open and close with ease, but also are required to have a superior impact resistance with respect to the hands and the wrists. Also the gloves should be light weight for easy maneuvering of the hand and with adequate ventilation to allow air flow for comfort.
The gloves are usually made of wear resistant material. In order to protect the hands and the wrists from injury, a thick impact alleviating member serving to absorb and alleviate any impact imposed on the hand is inserted mainly on a back hand part of the glove. The impact alleviating member is formed from a formed material made of resin and provided around a wrist part, in a back hand part, and on the back finger parts of the glove. Although the wear resistant material and the impact alleviating members provide some protection, the impact alleviating members greatly decrease the comfort and flexibility. In particular, the wear resistant material causes the player's hand to become hot and lead to perspiration due to a lack of adequate ventilation, and the thick impact alleviating member restrict bending action of fingers and wrists.
Accordingly, improvements are desirable to provide a superior impact resistance with respect to the hands and the wrists along with comfort, without deteriorating the maneuverability thereof.